


pay off

by Siria



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: non_mcsmooch, F/M, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-13
Updated: 2010-01-13
Packaged: 2017-10-06 06:17:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siria/pseuds/Siria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Winslow_arizona, who wanted Jennifer/Rodney to the prompt "this was not your dream, but you always believed in me". Thanks to Cate and Trin for cheer leading!</p>
            </blockquote>





	pay off

Rodney's tuxedo was uncomfortable, his dress shoes pinched, and the Concert Hall was over-heated, but he supposed this was the price you paid in order to sit through a Nobel Prize awards ceremony—short-term discomfort in return for knowing that truly excellent work would soon be receiving an appropriate level of recognition. He politely applauded in all the right places, looked like he was listening attentively to all the speeches, mumbled his way through the Swedish national anthem, and did his level best not to spend too long peering at the king, trying to figure out whether he was sleeping through the ceremony. He was even a little proud of himself that he tapped out only one text message to Sheppard: _would be more interesting if swedish chef gave out prizes_.

It felt like forever—Literature? _Economic_ sciences? Who decided that they should give out Nobels in faux disciplines?—but then there she was: Jennifer standing up to receive the award for medicine. Her gown rustled as she walked up to the podium, pink-cheeked and beaming, and Rodney's palms ached from clapping so hard. She received her diploma and medal from the Chairman, then turned to make an awkward little half-bow, half-curtsey to the audience. The flare of flash photography was enough to make Rodney blink, even several months after declassification and the media circus that had gone along with it—he had no idea how Jennifer managed not to shade her eyes from the glare.

She sat back down, diploma and medal in its presentation case clasped in her hands. From where he was sitting, Rodney could see little more than the fall of her hair, the line of her skirts, but he kept his gaze on her anyway—and even if it stung a little that he hadn't received the award for physics (yet! He was just waiting for the bulk of his work to be declassified, and then he'd have something to call Jeannie and gloat over), he was proud, he realised, _so_ proud that his chest ached with the force of it.

Afterwards, they smiled and posed for pictures—Jennifer alone; Jennifer sitting next to her father, now frail and using a wheelchair; Jennifer with Rodney—until Rodney thought he would be quite content to never have his picture taken again.

"This is why Sheppard and Ronon should have come with us," he told Jennifer between clenched teeth. "Ronon would ham it up for them, John would distract them with verbal inanities and all his shiny, shiny medals, and we could escape."

"Escape?" Jennifer said, picking up her skirts with one hand so that they could have their picture taken on the steps leading up to the stage. Rodney didn't think even Jeannie had demanded this many photos when he and Jennifer had gotten married. "This is my Nobel prize award ceremony, Rodney. I kind of want to enjoy it a little bit longer."

"I know," Rodney told her, "but our hotel room has a very big bed, and I've never had sex with a Nobel prize winner before." He refrained from saying that her breasts looked amazing in that dress—he was pretty sure that was implicit.

"Oh," Jennifer said, and blinked, and then smirked. "Well, okay then. Long as I get to call the shots."

Rodney, knowing what Jennifer could do with her tongue, had absolutely no problem with that. She laughed at the look on his face, and Rodney loved that he was the person who could make her happy—loved _her_—and he bent her back over his arm and kissed her, right there in front of the watching world and half the Swedish royal family.

"That's totally one of your additional prizes," he told her when he let her stand back up, dozens of cameras still flashing around them, and grinned.

"Lucky me," Jennifer said softly, and kissed him on the temple.


End file.
